LINE DEVELOPER CONFERENCE -- Park Eui-vin (left), Chief Technology Officer at Line, delivers a keynote speech concluding the “2018 Dev Week Global Workshop” hosted by Line Plus, the Korean unit of Line, in Seoul on Friday. The annual event invites developers from Line’s offices worldwide to discuss the latest IT trends and issues. This year, the conference invited more than 1,000 of Line’s developers from seven countries to partake in various workshops. The four-day conference took place from Ap

Technology April 20, 2018

South Korean mobile game publishing giant Netmarble Games said Thursday that it would launch next month its first-ever mobile multiplayer strategy game “Iron Throne,” which the firm hopes will appeal to gamers worldwide, particularly in North America.Netmarble plans to begin servicing the game -- previously presented to the public under the name “Firstborn: Kingdom Come” -- in 251 territories worldwide via the Google Play and Apple App Store. China has been excluded from the list due to local re

Technology April 19, 2018

South Korea ranks 12th out of 24 of the world’s top information technology economies in terms of cloud computing readiness, according to the 2018 BSA Global Cloud Computing Scorecard, a bi-annual study that assesses and compares the cloud computing policies of different countries.Korea’s ranking remains unchanged from that of 2016, suggesting a need for more flexibility in the legal and regulatory environment for cloud services here, BSA said.BSA is an international software industry trade assoc

Technology April 18, 2018

Kakao, the operator of South Korea’s dominant mobile messenger KakaoTalk, will introduce this summer a new video streaming app in Japan that will leverage the content and “free-if-you-wait” business model behind its popular manga comics platform Piccoma.The launch of Piccoma TV was announced by Kakao Japan during a press conference held in Tokyo Tuesday to mark the two-year anniversary of Piccoma’s introduction in Japan.The upcoming service, dubbed Piccoma TV, will be launched as early as this A

Technology April 18, 2018

Melon, the music streaming app operated by South Korean mobile business giant Kakao, dominates the country’s music streaming service market, leaving little room for foreign players like Apple Music to join the competition, new analytics data released Tuesday showed.According to Seoul-based app analytics firm WiseApp, Melon was, by a large margin, the top-used music streaming service here in March this year. Melon saw 5.69 million users as of March 2018, up 7.6 percent from 5.29 million users in

Technology April 17, 2018

Bayer Korea and the Korea Trade-Investment and Promotion Agency on Tuesday announced three South Korean digital health startups selected to join its venture acceleration program designed to help promising startups pursuing new businesses in the health technology space.　The three finalists include Is It Fresh, which has developed a disposable Internet of a Things sensor designed to be discarded after one-time use, Nuri Bio, an analysis reagent developer for early cancer diagnosis, and Deep Medi,

Technology April 17, 2018

South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has reportedly begun investigating Google Play over allegations that the US tech giant’s mobile app marketplace abused its market position by pressuring local game publishers to initially launch new mobile games through Google Play only.　According to industry sources on Monday, Korea’s FTC has begun surveying local mobile game companies to review whether they were pressured or asked by Google to either “launch their games only through specific app marketplaces

Technology April 16, 2018

South Korean drugmakers are rushing to roll out generic copies of Pfizer’s smoking cessation drug Champix, as the treatment’s substance patent here was recently broken by a local patent court. The decision allows copycat drugs to be launched in Korea by as early as November.Korea’s Intellectual Property Trial and Appeal Board recently ruled in favor of 22 local drugmakers which had claimed that their generic copies of Champix -- slightly modified to use Varenicline salicylate instead of Varenicl

Industry April 16, 2018

Cho Hyun-min, the second daughter of the chairman of Korean Air Lines, returned to South Korea on Sunday in the face of mounting controversy over the allegation that she assaulted a manager of a local advertising firm by throwing water at his face.　Cho, a senior vice president at the airline, arrived at Incheon Airport at 5:26 a.m. via the Korean Air flight KE464, from Danang, Vietnam, where she had been on vacation. At the airport, the 35-year-old Korean Air heiress apologized for her “foolish

Industry April 15, 2018

Google has made it clear through its “AI first” initiative that technological progress will not stop in the mobile age but take a new leap forward with artificial intelligence, as AI engines will allow people to do much more with their smartphones or electronic devices than is possible now.　Though the common perception is that AI will mostly impact developed countries in the West where its roots lie, Google’s Asia-Pacific President Karim Temsamani said that on the contrary, much of the growth fr

Technology April 12, 2018

The World Health Organization has delayed by one year its 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases, which had included controversial plans to list video game addiction as a mental health condition, according to industry sources Wednesday.　The WHO stipulated in its “ICD-11 Joint Linearization for Mortality and Morbidity Statistics: Project Plan 2015-2018” report, dated January this year, that it will not endorse the revised mental health disorder guidebook until May 2019.“The

Technology April 11, 2018

Raonsecure, a South Korean mobile security solutions provider, will showcase its biometric authentication solutions and USB security dongles at the RSA Conference 2018 that kicks off Monday in San Francisco, the company said Wednesday.　The company will operate a booth inside the Korea Pavilion organized by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency. It plans to hold a product briefing session twice every day during the exhibition period. (Raonsecure)At this year’s conference, Raonsecure will be

Technology April 11, 2018

Payoneer, a New York-based payments processing company, officially launched a new South Korea office Tuesday, targeting small and midsized businesses here that sell their products globally via online marketplaces like Amazon and Alibaba.　“Launching Payoneer’s office in Korea shouldn’t come as a surprise. Korea is a fast-growing economy and the seventh biggest e-commerce market in the world,” said Payoneer’s General Manager for Direct Business Eyal Moldovan during a

Market April 10, 2018

Shares of Samsung BioLogics, a contract drug manufacturer under South Korea’s Samsung Group, hit an all-time high of 600,000 won ($564) on Tuesday morning, following news reports suggesting that the electronics giant is increasing direct stakes in its biopharma subsidiaries.　It marks a 341 percent jump from the firm’s initial offering price of 136,000 won set at the time of its initial public offering in November 2016.With the recent share price hike, Samsung BioLogics has become the third-large

Industry April 10, 2018

Kakao Taxi, South Korea’s most widely-used taxi hailing app, on Tuesday added a “paid option” that offers users faster pickup services. The option will cost an extra 1,000 won on top of the taxi fare, according to the company. 　The paid option, dubbed “smart call,” leverages Kakao’s artificial intelligence and big data analysis engines to direct a particular ride request to taxi drivers who are most likely to accept the call based on previous pickup history and driving patterns. The 1,000 won “s

Technology April 10, 2018